One of the questions you hear asked all the time at a trade show is "so what's the best thing you've seen?"
Well, usually the answer is something flashy, new, expensive or ground-breaking, so I really didn't expect the answer in one case to be... an instrument cable.
Eh? Been on the whacky-baccy, mate?
Well, I was kinda curious, so I moseyed on down (I think you have to mosey in Nasville - it's the law) to the stand in question where I found the splendidly-bearded Nial McGaughey and the lovely Anthea Hodge (who wasn't bearded, btw) of Solid Cables. who manufacture a range of very, er.. solid.. cables.
So solid you can tow a truck with their speaker cable, in fact.
Now it's a little-known fact - but there, I've told you now - that I spent a while wiring up professional recording studios, so I've seen a mile or ten of cables in my time. I've also run listening tests, and heard for myself the enormous difference a cable can make to sound fidelity at every part of the signal path - especially at the front-end where the signals are so tiny.
Nial has obviously done his due diligence, and has put in a lot of testing too, to find the best materials and construction techniques to make the best instrument cable he can make.
Which is all good...but he 'would' say his cables are the best, wouldn't he...
so we looked to an independent tester:-
While I was filming Nial, local music-hero Billy Reasons (who has a very interesting life story and is also a mighty nice guy to boot) stopped by to thank him for the Solid Cable he used for a gig the night before.
So I just had to ask him if he'd tell me on camera what he really thought of them...
Andy Mac
www.solidcables.com www.billyreasons.net
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